Disabled veteran asks for public support; service dog faces euthanasia for biting woman who beat him with metal pole

An Army Veteran with disabilities is asking for the public's help in saving his service dog, Dutch, from court-ordered euthanasia. After being punched, kicked, and hit with a metal pole for several minutes, Dutch bit his attacker and has now been accused of being a "vicious" dog.

Dutch is a 4-year-old American Allaunt, who is a registered service dog and an important part of Jeremy Aguilar's life. Dutch has never shown any aggressive behavior before or after the incident and is a certified AKC Canine Good Citizen.

Jeremy served in the Army, and fought in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. He also was also deployed to Hurricane Katrina with the Oklahoma National Guard, which was the first unit to show up. Dutch came into Jeremy’s life a month after he married his wife Heather three years ago. Heather says that Dutch has been "the most therapeutic thing that could have ever happened" to her husband.

On November 14, 2012, Jeremy and Heather left Dutch with his former owner in Montrose, Colorado, while they drove a family member to the airport.

According to Heather, Dutch's former owner admitted to animal control officers and in court that she was beating Dutch before he bit her.

Heather says that Dutch's former owner said, "I started punching him in the face and kept punching him until my hands hurt so bad I couldn't hit him anymore," after which she grabbed a metal pole and used the pole to beat the service dog. She then pulled Dutch from her backyard into the house by his collar, and grabbed his mouth as soon as they got inside. Dutch then bit her. The woman was bitten on her leg and buttock and Dutch sustained injuries to his face and head.

The Incident

The bent metal pole seen above was found in the back yard belonging to Dutch's former owner (click on image to enlarge).

The activity on this page has really gone through the roof in the last 24 hours and we are desperately trying to answer all of the questions that are pouring in. The only person that was there at the time the woman started to hit Dutch was the woman herself so we really cannot say for sure why she decided to start hitting him. In the beginning she said that Dutch and another dog was fighting, so she decided to beat only Dutch because he was the bigger of the two dogs, but between the time she wrote the police report and the time she went to court, she had changed it to be a different dog with no explanation, so we really do not know why. My husband had known this woman for about 12 years and we had no reason to believe that Dutch would not be safe around her. We only know as the truth what the evidence tells us which is she hit him for an extended period of time, drug him into the house, grabbed him again, and that's when he bit. We really want to keep this page focused on our fight which is, Dutch is being considered vicious, which he is not. The law states that a dog has to bite someone unprovoked, and hitting a dog is provoking it. We are aware that this happens so much of the time when a dog case is brought to a human court, without a thought, the dog is in the wrong and sentenced to death, and that is not right.

Even if there were two dogs fighting, when a human chooses to insert themselves into an animal fight, they become part of the fight in the minds of both animals. Dogs do not reason like humans and just because you think you know a dog and the dog knows you does not mean they will not perceive you as a threat in a fight. People like to treat pets as if they are people or kids and while most of the time, they will play that role willingly, there are times they only see you as another animal and potentially a threat.

My family had a big dog when I was growing up that was friendly and loved people. If you raised your voice, he would cower down or back off. However, if you ever tried to get near his food, he would growl and snap at you. As soon as you took a couple of steps back, his tail would start wagging and he would become playful again.

Hopefully the truth or facts will come out about this story long before something is done to the dog.